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DEVELOPMENT OF MUSHROOM AND BERRY INDUSTRY REQUIRES EFFICIENT MANAGEMENT

03 may 2018

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Problems and prospects of using non-timber forest products (NTFP) and recreational potential of forests were discussed by the participants of the republican Forest Dialogue forum held in Syktyvkar by The Silver Taiga Foundation for Sustainable Development with the support of WWF-Russia.

This year, the forum brought
together representatives of almost all extensive logging forest areas of the
Komi Republic, Syktyvkar, and Arkhangelsk. The event was attended by scientists,
experts of the national, municipal and local authorities, business people,
representatives of public organizations and local communities.

The participants of Forest Dialogue
noted that the use of hunting, food, tourism and recreational resources of the
forest in the Komi Republic has not become a significant economic component and
a source of replenishment of the national and municipal budgets, primarily due
to the lack of efficient management of these resources. However, the analysis shows
that non-timber, primarily food resources of the forest, are a significant
source of income for the local rural communities. In addition, in remote
settlements, where the share of the unemployed people reaches 50% or more, such
resources often become a major source of livelihood.

Deputy Director of The Silver
Taiga Foundation for Sustainable Development, Valentina Semyashkina, said
that today for wild plant collection a similar scheme is used: pickers of mushrooms-berries
either sell wild plants on their own in the market and at 'curb market', or sell
them to local buyers. The latter, in their turn, sell them to the suppliers.
Further, the raw material goes to the major suppliers for processing and only
then to the consumer. At the same time there is only primary processing (boiling,
drying, freezing) of the harvested wild plants in the Republic.

"The main part goes beyond the region. There, it is subject to deep processing and gets to the consumer as the final product. Thus, pickers and suppliers in the Republic sell goods with low added value, which does not contribute to the transformation of the mushroom and berry economy in a more or less significant economic component at the regional or at least at the district level," notes Valentina Semyashkina.

One of the options for
changing the situation, according to the participants of the dialogue, may be
the creation of a regional enterprise for wild plant processing.

Among the reasons for insufficient
use of wild plants, the forum participants also highlighted the lack of
economic assessment of the potential of wild plants, monitoring of the state of
biocenoses, crop conservation activities, control over the use, inconsistency
of interests and actions of science, business and government.

During the forum, the
participants also discussed the experience and problems associated with the use
of hunting and recreational forest resources, drafted proposals and
recommendations for the development of these areas of forest management. The
final document of the Forest Dialogue will be submitted to all the stakeholders,
including relevant authorities.

“Forest Dialogue was first held by The Silver Taiga Foundation for Sustainable Development, a partner of WWF-Russia in the Komi Republic, 10 years ago, and has since become an effective platform for finding solutions to topical problems of forest management,” comments Andrey Shchegolev, the Head of Arkhangelsk office, WWF-Russia Barents Ecoregion Programme. – “The initial purpose of this forum was to build a direct dialogue between big business and local communities, whose lives are closely connected with the forest. Later, within the framework of Forest Dialogue, residents of rural communities obtained an opportunity to discuss other issues related to forest management: the development of voluntary forest certification and the use of non-timber forest products. Forest Dialogue has an obvious advantage over other regional and even federal sites as it is an opportunity to hear the voice of local communities, those people who live near the forest and whose lives depend directly on efficiency of forest management decisions.”